Groups want debt panel lobbying info

Good government groups want to know – right now – who’s attempting to influence Congress’ debt-slashing supercommittee.

So today, a coalition of government reform and transparency organizations are demanding that supercommittee members voluntarily disclose their committee-related contacts with lobbyists and publicly report any campaign donations within 48 hours of receiving them.

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The groups note in the letter that most federally mandated lobbying and campaign finance disclosure reports covering October, November and December – when the supercommittee is slated to conduct the bulk of its work – won’t become public until mid-January.

“Failure to ensure transparency of these fundamental avenues of influence will reinforce the public’s mistrust of the process and risks delegitimizing the committee’s work,” the 14 groups wrote in a joint letter being sent this afternoon to the dozen supercommittee members. “Your critical work on this committee has begun, and yet the public remains in the dark about special interests’ attempts to influence your decision-making process, whether by meeting with you or donating to your campaigns.”

Is such a request merely wishful thinking?

“It’s an expectation,” said John Wonderlich, policy director for the Sunlight Foundation, one of the letter’s signatories. “This isn’t an exercise in how we hope the world may be one day, because the action is happening now.”

Supercommittee members couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

To date, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) has announced he will not fundraise while serving on the supercommittee, and Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said Wednesday that he won’t schedule new fundraisers during his supercommittee tenure. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has also canceled some fundraisers.

But the majority of the supercommittee members continue to fundraise. And none have so far stated that they’d disclose more information about their campaign cash or lobbyist contacts than is required by federal law.

There is some precedent for the enhanced disclosure for which the groups are calling.

President Barack Obama, for example, required his administration officials to disclose lobbying contacts regarding the Troubled Asset Relief Program and Wall Street reform. Federal political candidates are also required to file 48-hour campaign finance reports within 20 days of an election.

Generally, however, members of Congress do not have to publicly report when and where they meet with lobbyists, nor who the lobbyists are.

Among the other organizations signing today’s disclosure demand: the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, Center for Responsive Politics, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Common Cause, Fix Congress First, the League of Women Voters of the United States, MapLight, OMB Watch, OpentheGovernment.org, Project On Government Oversight, Public Citizen, Taxpayers for Common Sense and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.